Folding seats are well known and commonly used in theaters, athletic stadiums, and the like, Recently, a new use for folding seats is on buses and trains, where the seat can fold upwardly, out of the way to make room for a wheel chair.
To accomplish this, it is of course desirable for the folding seat to move out of the way as much as possible. By this invention, a new technique for a folding seat is provided in which the seat can fold upwardly, and the back of the seat can simultaneously move rearwardly so that the seat is even more out of the way than it normally would be with conventional folding seats of comparable seat thickness. Thus, a folding seat may be comfortable and safe for the user, but it may also be folded out of the way providing an increased amount of spacing between it and the seat or other structure in front of it, to provide added room for a wheel chair or the like.
This principle may of course be used in any desired folding seat, where an increase in space in front of the seat is desired. For example, this can provide larger transverse aisles in front of rows of such folding seats. At the same time, the back of the folding seat in its seating position can assume a forward slope that is comfortable to the back of the user.